State lawmakers gavel in fiscal session Arkansas lawmakers have opened a legislative session that's expected to focus on the future of the state's compromise plan to expand Medicaid under the federal health care law. The House and Senate convened Monday for the state's third-ever fiscal session. It's the third slimmed-down session focusing on the state's budget under a constitutional amendment voters approved in 2008 requiring the Legislature to meet and budget annually. The top age...

State eyes explosives for old Broadway Bridge Arkansas highway department engineers are considering a spectacular farewell to the Broadway Bridge connecting downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock - crews may blow it up. Planning continues for the construction of a new bridge connecting the two cities over the Arkansas River, but contractors must decide how to best get rid of the current span. According to Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department officials, detonating the bridge ...

State panel solicits votes for state song The Arkansas Parks and Tourism Department is opening voting for selection of the state song. Seven songs have been chosen as finalists in the competition, for which voting begins Monday and runs through Feb. 24. More than 230 people entered the competition. People who want to vote can listen to the finalists at to www.arkansas.com/song-of-arkansas and vote on their choice. The winner will be announced on March 3 and will perform the song at th...

Still no sign of missing airplane, pilot MENA (AP) — Winter weather conditions and poor visibility continued to hamper searchers looking for a missing Arkansas Forestry Commission pilot and airplane. Commission spokeswoman Adriane Barnes said only ground crews were able to search on Saturday for Jake Harrell and the plane he was flying when he disappeared while looking for wildfires in western Arkansas on Jan. 31. She said snow in the region may have covered the aircraft and official...

Man dies while working in Jonesboro warehouse JONESBORO (AP) — Craighead County authorities say a 71-year-old man has died while helping clean an empty warehouse in south Jonesboro. The Jonesboro Sun reported Saturday that sheriff’s Investigator Rusty Grigsby said James Luther Johnson was one of four men working in the building owned by Fowler Foods when he became sick and later died. Grigsby says the body was sent to the Arkansas State Crime Lab in Little Rock to determine the cause of d...

2 jump into river to avoid wreck; 1 missing LITTLE ROCK (AP) — A search was called off because of darkness early Saturday night for one of two people who jumped from an interstate bridge in southwestern Arkansas into an icy river to avoid a jackknifed 18-wheeler that was skidding toward them. The search for the missing person along the Little Red River was to resume Sunday morning, according to Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, which was leading the ...

Police, sociologists note drop in icy accidents LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Police and social scientists believe that while Arkansas residents are obtaining plenty of experience on icy roads this winter, a drop in the number of traffic accidents is likely due to motorists simply choosing to park their cars and wait for the bad weather to clear. The state has been raked by snow or ice a dozen times since November, double the usual number of storms. More snow and ice were predicted for Friday night, t...

Many school districts seek state help on snow days WEST FORK (AP) — A number of Arkansas school districts intend to ask the state Department of Education for permission to shorten the school year because they’ve had so many snow days. The state requires schools to be in session for 178 days. Once they miss more than 10, and take steps to make up many of them during spring break and other times, the state can cut them a break. Forecasters say Arkansas this season has had 13 bouts of winter weat...

Teenager with gun arrested at LR high school LITTLE ROCK (AP) — An 18-year-old male was arrested after allegedly bringing a handgun into Little Rock’s McClellan High School. Police say Martez Moore was arrested at 11 a.m. Friday after a school resource officer saw three suspicious males in a car on campus. The three entered the school and security officers electronically scanned them. Moore allegedly had a .25-caliber pistol concealed in one of his socks. The security officer confiscated...

Shoffner to make Feb. 27 court appearance LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Former Arkansas Treasurer Martha Shoffner is to make a Feb. 27 court appearance to answer a new indictment that charges her with improper spending from her campaign account. Shoffner is scheduled for trial next month on charges she accepted cash payments from a broker to whom she steered state investments. On Thursday, prosecutors revealed that Shoffner faces 10 counts of mail fraud, in addition to the earlier charges. She i...

Ex-Ark. treasurer indicted over campaign cash LITTLE ROCK (AP) — A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted former Treasurer Martha Shoffner, already facing trial next month over accusations she accepted cash payments from a broker to whom she steered investments, on new charges that she spent thousands in campaign funds on personal items. U.S. Attorney Christopher Thyer announced that Shoffner was charged in the superseding indictment with 10 counts of mail fraud over allegations she used...

State shivers through 3rd day of sub-freezing tempsLITTLE ROCK (AP) — Arkansas shivered through a third consecutive day of subfreezing temperatures and received a light dusting of snow on Thursday, extending the misery after a weekend snowstorm and a Tuesday ice storm. Less than an inch of snow fell on ice-laden trees in western and central Arkansas but didn’t pose a great threat to bring down limbs. John Robinson, the warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service in North...

Beebe declares emergency for weather LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Gov. Mike Beebe says damage to private and public property during this week’s winter weather was bad enough to qualify as an emergency. The governor issued a proclamation Thursday suspending some purchasing laws so state agencies can aid local governments impacted by ice and snow that has fallen since the weekend. Arkansas’ governors have power to issue emergency executive orders when warranted. Under Thursday’s proclamation...

Model Arkansas way of expanding Medicaid at risk LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Arkansas’ plan for expanding Medicaid by buying private insurance policies for the poor instead of adding them to the rolls was heralded as a model for convincing more Republican-leaning states to adopt a key part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. But now, as Republican lawmakers face election season and step up attacks on what they deride as Obamacare, the state that pioneered the private option is on the br...

AG cyber-crimes unit arrests Grant County manLITTLE ROCK (AP) — Officials at the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office have arrested a Grant County man for possession of child pornography. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said Thursday that 27-year-old Bryan Mitchell Baker of Sheridan was arrested on 30 counts of distributing, possessing or viewing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child. Baker was being held in the Sheridan Detention Center on $100,000 bond. It was not...

Panel: Suspend fundraising ban in HouseLITTLE ROCK (AP) — An Arkansas House panel on Thursday recommended allowing representatives to raise campaign funds during this month’s legislative session, expanding on a narrower recommendation last week to just lift the fundraising ban for two members running for Congress. The House Rules Committee voted to suspend a rule that bars members from raising money during the legislative session set to begin Monday, which is expected to focus prim...

Search for forestry pilot finds old crash MENA (AP) — Searchers looking for a missing Arkansas Forestry Commission pilot and his aircraft found the wreckage of a decades old plane crash — but no sign of the currently missing pilot and plane. Commission spokeswoman Adriane Barnes said Wednesday that searchers on Rattlesnake Mountain in Polk County found the wreckage of a plane — giving brief hope that missing pilot Jake Harrell and his plane had been found. Barnes says searchers soon l...

Gov. Beebe announces intent to pardon 5LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Gov. Mike Beebe has announced his intent to grant five pardons. Beebe said in a news release Wednesday that each of the five have completed all jail time, fulfilled all parole- and probation requirements and paid all fines. The five are Bobby Douthit of Lowell; James Hosford of Memphis, Tenn.; Cloris Jean Espinosa Madrid of Rogers; Jeffrey Petty of Beebe; and Latonya Tripp Washington of Forrest City. Douthit was convicted of...

ASU cites study in advocating medical school JONESBORO (AP) — Arkansas State University says a feasibility study it commissioned has confirmed that the northeast Arkansas region needs a medical school. The university said Tuesday that starting a medical school would help meet demand for primary care physicians in the Delta region. The study says opening the school would also have a $70 million economic impact. ASU and the Delta Regional Authority signed a contract with consultant Tripp U...

Entergy Arkansas reports 38K outages from storm LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Tens of thousands of homes and businesses remain without electricity after wintry weather hit Arkansas. Entergy Arkansas says about 38,000 customers were without power Wednesday morning. Garland County had the highest number of outages at more than 5,800. Crittenden County reported more than 4,100 outages and Conway County had about 3,300 outages. Cross County reported more than 3,100 outages. Outages of more than 2,000 cust...